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INTENTIONAL ACTION: Let your core values guide you through life’s toughest decisions

From Daily Maverick · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • Reconnecting with core personal values can help people make difficult career and relationship decisions with greater clarity and confidence.
  • The article presents values as emotionally charged beliefs and priorities that shape attitudes, behavior, goals and everyday choices.
  • It suggests writing a personal values statement and completing prompts about work, relationships and the qualities people want to embody.

Difficult choices about careers, relationships and life direction can feel overwhelming. One way to regain clarity, the article argues, is to reconnect with the values that matter most.

How would I like to live my life going forward?

· Article promptThe article uses this question to help readers identify their core personal values.

Drawing on Schwartz’s theory of values, it describes values as beliefs that become infused with feeling when activated. They also work as standards and form an ordered system of priorities, shaping people’s attitudes and behavior, especially when a choice conflicts with what they consider important.

The article suggests asking, “How would I like to live my life going forward?” and placing five meaningful words into a personal declaration: “I choose to live my life (value 1) and (value 2); with (value 3) and (value 4), always remembering to be (value 5).” Examples include living calmly and creatively, with discipline and consideration, while remembering to be grateful, or living ambitiously and independently, with patience and integrity, while remembering to be tolerant.

I choose to live my life calmly and creatively, with discipline and consideration, always remembering to be grateful.

· Article exampleThe sentence illustrates how readers can turn selected values into a personal declaration.

The exercise is presented as a way to identify goals that motivate action and create a steady point of reference during major changes. Rather than trying to predict exactly how life will unfold, the article encourages readers to accept that change is coming and focus on the principles that can provide direction through uncertainty.

I choose to live my life ambitiously and independently, with patience and integrity, always remembering to be tolerant.

· Article exampleA second example shows another way to frame a values-based statement.
About this summary

Originally published by Daily Maverick. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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